Nicosia [Cyprus], May 31: The authorities in Cyprus reported on Monday a recent surge of refugees, with three boatloads of clandestine migrants arriving on the country's shores within a few hours overnight.
Police said that the boats carried 92 people, including six women and 11 minors.
Five of them, reportedly the operators of the boats, are under arrest as suspected people traffickers.
Police said that two of the boats carrying undocumented migrants believed to be Syrians were brought to shore overnight on Sunday on the southeastern coast of Cyprus.
Thirty more people, all young men in their 30s who claimed to be Syrians, arrived at the northwestern coast of the island from the southern coast of Turkey.
The police said that other undocumented migrants, including people from sub-Saharan countries, arrive daily by air from Turkey in the part of Cyprus controlled by Turkish troops and then cross over the buffer zone separating the island's Greek and Turkish Cypriot parts.
According to census data quoted by Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, currently 193,000 foreign nationals reside on the island, accounting for 21 percent of Cyprus' local population of 918,000.
Anastasiades said that refugees and irregular immigrants account for 6 percent of the population, while the corresponding ratio for each one of the other 26 European Union (EU) countries is less than one percent.
Several thousand irregular migrants waiting for an asylum decision live in crowded refugee centers, where clashes between rival groups are frequent.
Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, has reported that since the beginning of 2022, more than 1,300 asylum seekers have entered Cyprus. The island lies on the eastern Mediterranean migration route, the most used path to Europe.
Source: Xinhua